Monday, July 6, 2009

Canada Day Concert Redux

It is my very great pleasure to share with you the video taken of the entire Canada Day concert.

Bless Martine and Daniel for shooting the HD footage, for editing it and posting it to YouTube; and even more so for burning all those concert DVDs for the orchestra members! It was a real treat to sit back and enjoy the concert the way the audience did, and as the Blu-Ray player and TV are hooked up to the surround stereo and subwoofer, I got to hear the orchestra in all its glory. (Okay, the church is very echoey, and at times our articulation isn't as clear as it could have been and those two issues = occasional muddy sound, but hey! There's sound to be heard!) And I appreciate it all the more because my audio recording was such a miserable mess.




Overall, I am very pleased with my performance in this video. Two things leap out at me. One, I tend to make small faces while I play, mostly tightening of the mouth during different phrases. It's not in reaction to mistakes, it's more like... expression. It probably can't be seen from the audience, but seeing it on screen when the camera was on the celli was very odd. This summer I'm going to work on relaxing the muscles around my mouth when I play. And two, I've been working on lowering my right elbow, and damn it, every once in a while it pops up like a chicken wing. Down, elbow! Down! Something else to work on this summer.

There were a couple of places in the video when I waved my hands at the screen and said, "The celli! The CELLI! They have the theme, the violins are just playing a repeated note -- pan RIGHT!" And there was the odd place where the camera would pan to the brass... just in time for them to lower their instruments. But those are understandable in a live recording, and really, I'm just thrilled to have the record of the event. Especially on DVD! Merci encore, Martine et Daniel, vos efforts et votre générosité sont vraiment appréciés!

~
* The original post at Owls' Court
* Owls' Court: the main journal
~

5 comments:

Marilee Rockley said...

Fabulous video quality! Your group looks and sounds wonderful! Wish I had time to watch them all - actually now that I have found your links, I'll use your beautiful music to listen to while I'm working on the computer.

gottagopractice said...

What a wonderful memento. So far I have only listened to Pavane, a special favorite, partially because I have wonderful memories (now) of playing the terrifying 'cello soli at 4:11 the first time. And alas, I aso know exactly what you're talking about with the little mouth tightening thing. And the chicken wings. We must be living parallel lives!

This is weird- my word verification is an anagram of my name. Spooky!

CelloGeek said...

I listened to the Vaughn Williams and a short bit of the Schubert. You sounded lovely! Thanks for sharing!

A. Hiscock said...

Thank you for the lovely comments, everyone! I'm glad you enjoyed the videos.

nancy said...

I'm a bit late on checking out the cello blogs due to family visiting this week, but what a joy to see your Canada Day Concert and listen to that beautiful music! Your orchestra is wonderful and I'm seriously thinking of moving to Canada! LOVED the Pavane. Thanks.